Hare was sent overseas in 1949. His letters soon stopped coming and his parents heard nothing about him for two years. In 1951, they learned he had died in a prisoner-of-war camp and was buried in a mass grave.

North Korea released the boxed remains of 450 unidentified soldiers in the early 1990s. It took another decade for military experts to positively identify Hare.

His sister Deloris Burley of Ellerslie, Md., says family members had hoped and prayed for the return of his remains. She says the burial brings them closure.